Elon Musk might be putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to cancel culture.
The tech entrepreneur is offering to foot the legal bills for anyone “unfairly treated” by an employer because of something they posted or liked on Twitter.
The offer came with no limit on costs, with Musk suggesting that X would sue on behalf of the company’s users.
“If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill,” Musk wrote on Twitter on August 5. The post was viewed 129 million times as of Monday afternoon.
“And we won’t just sue, it will be extremely loud and we will go after the boards of directors of the companies too,” Musk added, responding to a post suggesting that nothing changes behavior faster than the threat of litigation.
Musk’s public offer followed the recent indefinite suspension of a promising NASCAR driver, Noah Gragson, who liked a meme on social media depicting George Floyd, ESPN reported. While Legacy Motor Club did not explicitly state that Gragson’s social media activity was the reason for his being disciplined, the organization said in a statement that Gragson’s actions “do not represent the values of our team.”
Gragson was replaced by driver Josh Berry in last week’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Michigan.
The 25-year-old rookie driver, whose career could now be in jeopardy, apologized in a post on Saturday.
“I am disappointed in myself for my lack of attention and actions on social media,” Gragson wrote. “I understand the severity of this situation. I love and appreciate everyone. I try to treat everyone equally no matter who they are. I messed up plain and simple.”
For its part, NASCAR said it “fully supports” Gragson’s suspension, claiming that the driver’s post violated “the Member Conduct section of the 2023 NASCAR Rule Book.”
Gragson is not the only one who has suffered occupational consequences over social media activity in recent years. The “cancel culture” phenomenon has broadened from what was previously considered a misfortune suffered by celebrities to something impacting regular people.
Back in January, employee Kara Lynne was allegedly fired by Limited Run Games after a transgender person brought to the video game company’s attention that Lynne was following conservative social media accounts, the Daily Mail reported. Lynne was tagged in Musk’s post.
Public critical commentary on LGBTQ issues, in particular, has been the basis for many terminations.
A literary assistant agent by the name of Sasha White claimed she was fired after retweeting a post that read, “TW [trans women] being vulnerable to male violence does not make you women.”
Following her termination, White reportedly posted, “I was fired last night for my feminist stance. … The twitter mob came for me and my employer and my employer immediately terminated me.”
It is unclear whether Musk plans on going through with the offer.
Musk recently noted that monthly users on Twitter reached a “new high” of more than 540 million, according to Reuters.
